Chapter 25 – Camp Fu
Ashley had been assigned her own room. She was the only girl in a camp of over twenty boys. She figured Geoff had to share, but as far as she was concerned, he was still the lucky one. As soon as their bags were stowed, the children assigned to the martial arts camp were lined up outside the main practice hall. Ashley stood in the back, so not to stand out any more than necessary.
Three instructors stood at the front of the room. The tallest prowled back and forth, not speaking, just taking stock of the assigned group. Ashley guessed he was doing his two years of public service, as well as the two assistants who stood beside him.
"I am Citizen Shou. You may call me Sihing Shou. See-hing means senior student. This is Sihing Cleary and Sihing Lopez. We are here to help guide you through the challenges of the next few weeks. This is a mixed martial arts course, you will be taught many things, and you will be tested. But first, I'd like to know, do any of you have experience in the martial arts?”
About half the students raised their hands. Ashley didn't lift hers. Despite two previous summers of similar courses, she did not count herself as experienced.
"Now, how many of you have been hit, hard, in the face?" Sihing Shou asked.
At first several hands went up, but some were timid, uncertain.
"I mean hard, bloody nose, fat lip, black eye. How many?”
Only a few hands remained aloft.
Shou pointed to one boy and asked, "Who hit you?”
"My brother hits me all the time," he said, pointing at his brother, standing a few spaces away.
Shou and several others laughed. Ashley noticed that the boy, however, was not laughing.
"And you?" Shou gestured to another boy.
"My father," came the answer.
Shou pointed again. "A kid in my class.”
"Has anyone here ever been hit while in the ring?" Shou asked.
All the hands went down.
"When you are in a fight, if you are ever in a fight, you must fight for your life. It will be at that moment when you are weak, tired, probably very hurt, that is when you must act to save your life. We will help you get to that place and teach you how to think while you're there.”
Shou walked along the front of the room. "Someone may come, an outlaw, the government, a king, they may take all of your possessions. They may steal your clothes, eat your food and burn down your house, but you can survive all of that. You may have nothing, but you will never be defenseless. Knowledge is the greatest power; it is something no one can see. It cannot be stolen or broken, and no one can take it from you.
“When you leave here, you will be in possession of new knowledge. You will know things you did not know when you arrived. You will have earned it, paid for it in sweat and blood, and it will be worth much more than money."
"This knowledge comes in the form of two most valuable lessons. The first can only be studied in a controlled environment, since the lesson is about control. Every day, at three o'clock, we will have tournament style sparring matches. Everyone will participate. You can win by points, knock out, or submission, but that is not the lesson. That is just the place where you will have the experience I want you to think about.
"You see a lesson is not always learned in a single moment. It is something to be taken in and contemplated. Then it becomes understood.
“The match is not the lesson, it is just the framework, but within this framework, at some point you will be hit in the face. This is a unique experience, I promise you.
“The lesson is this. How, after being struck, does one remain composed? Can you ignore the pain and stay focused on your survival? Can you remain calm and aware?
“I'm not here to teach you how to hit someone, but rather, how to work through being hit. So, lesson number one is, Keep thinking through the pain.
"Now lesson two is much more difficult to learn. If you could master this, you would never have to learn lesson one. Number two is simple: Don't get hit.”
"Everything we teach you supports those two rules. Okay, now I want you to go get changed into your warm up gear. We're going to do some stretching and a little Tai Chi."
This camp was different from the other Martial Arts programs Ashley had attended. For one thing, she liked it.